He was sentenced to just six years in prison, but for some reason he was led to believe that he would only have to serve three. After a flurry of confusion, his sentence was abridged, and he'll be released later this year.

The judge in the case apologized to the family of the killed man, saying that she should have caught the error earlier. Had he been properly sentenced, he would have stayed in prison until 2012.

But that's still not much time to serve for having killed a person. Courts have an inexplicable tolerance for manslaughter when cars are the instrument of death.

Meanwhile, police are investigating a grisly crash in Moss Landing, near Santa Cruz. A pickup truck was crossing some train tracks when an Amtrak train slammed into it at 50 mph, killing both occupants.